You can now earn Marriott Bonvoy points and elite nights by renting houses in Australia and New Zealand

If you haven't heard, Australia and New Zealand are once again welcoming tourists from many countries around the world after being shut down and isolated for the better part of two years.

In true TPG fashion, we had reporters on the ground in the two countries to check out what changed during the pandemic, what it's like to visit now and even review a few hotels, like the Park Hyatt Auckland and The Tasman, part of Marriott's Luxury Collection.

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And now, for Marriott Bonvoy loyalists planning a trip to the Southern Hemisphere, hotels aren't the only way to earn or redeem points Down Under. This week the company announced that its home rental arm, Homes & Villas by Marriott International, is operating in select destinations in both Australia and New Zealand.

While companies like Airbnb and Vrbo are usually front of mind when thinking about home rentals, many hotel brands are taking a shot at the business, including Accor and Mandarin Oriental. Marriott, which entered the space back in 2019 and recently celebrated the collection's third birthday, now has over 60,000 listings across 700 locations.

Homes & Villas by Marriott is different from its competitors in many ways, starting with the fact that it offers a hotel-like experience in the comfort of a home.

All of the collection's rentals have been specially curated to meet Marriott's brand standards and are all managed by private management companies rather than a regular person with a vacation home to rent when they're not using it.

The main difference is that with Homes & Villas, Marriott Bonvoy members have the opportunity to earn and redeem points on stays, plus elite qualifying nights. And we're all about chasing points and status here.

Related: How I triple stacked and earned 210,000 points and miles on an epic Marriott Homes & Villas booking

Now, you can take that chase to the other side of the planet with over 350 homes added to Homes & Villas in popular destinations like Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Orange, Australia, as well as Auckland and Queenstown, New Zealand, among other locales.

For a stunning view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, you could rent an apartment with three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in Kirribilli (pictured at the top of this article) starting at 700 Australian dollars ($480) or about 84,000 points per night, as shown on the search page.

However, when I clicked into the listing to see how that initial price compared to selecting actual dates, things got a little messy.

First, to book for two nights between June 27 and June 29, the price skyrocketed to AU$1,168 (about $800) per night, and included a AU$2,000 ($1,372) refundable deposit, AU$300 ($200) cleaning fee and AU$233.77 ($160) in taxes for a grand total of AU$4,871.43, or $3,505.48 as shown directly on the booking page.

When I started clicking around to see what dates the displayed AU$700 nightly rate was available, multiple times I encountered a notification that the minimum stay required for my dates was 21 nights.

Not until the calendar hit November did I find stays bookable for less than three weeks, but still with a three-night minimum. This time for the same AU$1,168 rate as broken down above.

Doing my due diligence, I clicked into a less expensive apartment offering "World Class 360° Sydney Harbour Bridge & Opera House Views." This one was initially shown as AU$232 (about $150) or 28,000 points per night.

Again, I found that stays before November required a 21-night minimum stay. For the November dates that were available for a mandatory three-night minimum, prices were significantly higher than initially shown, this time AU$872.35 (nearly $600) per night.

It appears that in New South Wales, short-term rentals have various caps, including only 180 days per year in the greater Sydney area for homes where the owner isn't present or minimum stays of at least 21 days, according to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment website.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the warmer summer months take place during the Northern Hemisphere's winter, which is most likely why shorter rental terms are available during those months as travelers flock to busy tourist areas like Sydney.

In Queenstown, a property called "Jaw-dropping lake and mountain views" initially appears in the search box for $445 per night (the search in New Zealand was listed in U.S. dollars versus the search in Australia that appeared as Australian dollars) or 74,000 points per night. Not a bad deal for a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house.

But again, it was a flustering experience attempting to book this property as there was only one available booking option for all of 2022: Aug. 12, with a five-night minimum.

It's worth noting as well that many homes that participate in home-sharing programs are available on multiple platforms, which is often a reason availability is limited beyond local ordinances.

For example, this property is also available to rent on Vrbo where the calendar shows it's fully booked except for the same dates as shown on Homes & Villas.

This time the rate was also significantly higher than initially listed, coming in at 1,017 New Zealand dollars (about $632). It also added a NZ$750 ($465) refundable security deposit, a NZ$386 ($240) cleaning fee and NZ$319 ($198) in taxes for a total of NZ$6,540, or $4,287.62 as shown in the booking window.

These prices aren't too far from what the property is being listed for on Vrbo, where everything is shown in U.S. dollars. There, the nightly rate was $637.11 with a $241.95 cleaning fee, $199.95 in taxes and a $470.10 refundable deposit. The total on Vrbo came out to $4,097.57, as shown below.

There's about a $200 price difference between booking on Vrbo and through Marriott. Booking through Vrbo doesn't have the obvious perks that you'll get booking through Marriot, but if you do go this route there are ways to maximize your spending to earn points and miles in other ways.

If you do book through Marriott, the booking window also conveniently shows you how many Marriott Bonvoy points you'll earn if you're signed in to your account (as shown below for me) or an estimate of how many points you could earn if you're not signed in. For this particular stay, I would earn 15,829 points.

Normally, you earn 5 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent on Homes & Villas stays, while those with elite status can earn up to 75% additional bonus points.

Right now, the program is offering a promotion where members who book a stay of at least five consecutive nights at a single Homes & Villas by Marriott property by June 22 and complete the stay by Dec. 31 will earn double points and a free night certificate for use at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels.

While finding available dates can be a finicky process with Homes & Villas, the rewards can be substantial — especially compared to Airbnb where you might have similar issues finding dates or where surprise cleaning fees change the entire booking.

The program also offers favorable cancellation policies that appeal to guests as we continue trekking on through a slightly more normalized version of life during a pandemic.

Bottom line

In some ways, it feels like the wild, wild west in the world of home-sharing. However, Homes & Villas by Marriott is one alternative that provides an elevated service that comes with the perk of earning or redeeming points and elite qualifying nights.

The introduction to New Zealand and Australia is very fresh, but we hope that properties open up more availability within the program so members can actually take advantage of it when it makes more sense to book a home than a hotel.